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George Takei Starts Care2 Petition to Support Muslims

Actor and activist George Takei has started a Care2 petition to gather support for the Muslim community and allow signers to speak out against Trump policies that would target them. Takei plans to deliver the petition signatures in person to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and government officials as a show of support.

On his Care2 petition, Takei writes about how when he was just five years old, his family was rounded up at gunpoint and forced into a Japanese American internment camp.

“During that time, fear and racism drove government policy, creating a living hell for over 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens,” Takei writes. “I have spent my life trying to ensure something like this never happens again. But dark clouds once more are gathering.”

In mid-November, a former spokesperson for a major super PAC backing Trump said the mass internment of innocent Japanese Americans sets a “precedent” for Trump to follow through with his plan to create a Muslim registry.

Takei’s Care2 petition was launched just days before Wednesday’s confirmation hearing is set to take place for Trump’s Department of Homeland Security pick, John Kelly.

Trump’s 100-day plan includes a commitment to suspend immigration from “terror-prone regions.”

“It starts with a registry, with restrictions, with irrationally ascribed guilt, and with fear,” Takei writes. “But we know well where it might lead.

“National security must never again be permitted to justify wholesale denial of constitutional rights and protections,” he continues. “If it is freedom and our way of life that we fight for, our first obligation is to ensure that our own government adheres to those principles. Without that, we are no better than our enemies.”